The History of Brazil

Brazil is a vast, complex country with great potential but an uneven history. This engaging study will introduce readers to the history of Brazil from its origins to today. It emphasizes current issues and problems, including the country's return to democracy after more than two decades of harsh military rule and the economic consequences of adopting free-market policies as part of the creation of the global marketplace. Levine, a noted Brazilianist, explains the legacy of slavery on race relations, the stubborn persistence of barriers to upward mobility, and the characteristics of Brazil's exuberant culture. The author draws not only from a broad array of traditional sources but from oral histories and postings on the Internet. The history of Brazil unfolds in narrative chronological chapters beginning with the Portuguese conquest, then moving on to the colonial period, Independence, the nineteenth-century monarchy--the only one in Latin America--the Republic, the nationalist regime under Vargas, the eclipse of democracy under military rule in the 1960s and 1970s, and the current democratically elected government under Cardoso, who was elected in 1998 to his second term. Short biographical sketches of 40 prominent Brazilians, a glossary of Portuguese terms, and a bibliographical essay add reference value to this work. This is the only up-to-date history of Brazil, current through 1999.

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Page 11 An Earthly Paradise In primeval times, South America was locked together with
Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and India in a "supercontinent" that for 300 million
years circled the South Pole in perpetual cold. Geologists tell us that about 100 ...

Page 153Brazilian society, much like society in Spanish America (and in North America, in
relation to African Americans and other minorities), has not applied the rights of
citizens universally. Discussions of citizenship take place on a moral, political ...

Page 199Press) and Robin Hanbury-Tenison, A Question of Survival for the Indians of
Brazil (London: Survival International, 1973). The role of the police is treated by
Martha K. Huggins, Political Policing: The United States and Latin America (
Durham, ...

The history of Brazil

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With over 3 million square miles of territory and 4,600 miles of shoreline, Brazil is the fifth largest nation in the world. In this impressively concise history, Levine, the director for the Center ...Read full review

References to this book

About the author (1999)

Robert M. Levine is director of Latin American Studies at the University of Miami, Coral Gables. He has written more than 20 books on Latin American history, has produced several original documentary videotapes on Latin American subjects, and is coeditor of the Luso-Brazilian Review.